SEATTLE — A federal judge in Seattle says a gay softball organization can limit the number of heterosexual players on each team.
The North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance oversees gay softball leagues in dozens of U.S. cities and runs an annual tournament called the Gay Softball World Series. Three men claim in a lawsuit that their team’s second-place finish in the 2008 tournament in Washington state was nullified because they are bisexual, not gay, and thus their team exceeded the limit of two non-gay players.
U.S. District Judge John Coughenour ruled this week that the organization has a First Amendment right to limit the number of heterosexual players, much as the Boy Scouts have a constitutional right to exclude gays. However, the judge did say that questions remain about the way the softball association applied its rule, and so the case can proceed.
The organization says the San Francisco-based team the men played on was disqualified because under questioning the men were evasive or declined to discuss their sexuality.
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